Posting the sane and insane news about the law and what otherwise strikes my fancy.
The opinions and commentary made by this author is solely his own. It does not reflect the opinion of any other individual or organization including the 83rd District Attorney's Office or Pecos, Brewster, Presidio or Jeff Davis Counties.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Man offers to show officer he's not carrying drugs; bag of cocaine falls out of his pocket

STAFF REPORTS / Daily News

FORT WALTON BEACH - A man who pulled out his pants pockets to
show a Fort Walton Beach Police officer he wasn't carrying drugs didn't
count on a plastic bag of cocaine falling to the ground.

On July 15 an officer was called to the Rancho Alegre bar on
Hollywood Boulevard by employees who had escorted a suspected drug
dealer off the premises. The man, Herminio Hurtado-Resendiz, 24, of
Destin, told the officer he wasn't selling drugs and voluntarily pulled
out his pants pockets.

The police officer spotted a small plastic bag fall out of Resendiz's
right-front pocket and land on the ground. The bag was full of a white,
powdery substance that field-tested positive for cocaine.

WASHINGTON — Improvised explosive devices, like those that have
killed and maimed thousands of American soldiers in Iraq and
Afghanistan, pose a growing threat across Texas and the United States,
leading to calls for urgent cooperation between U.S. military experts
and civilian law enforcement officers.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

I believe there should be some areas that should be available to those who are really suffering from the heat or if its medically necessary.

Is heat a death sentence for some inmates?

NY Times -

HOUSTON — Last summer's record-breaking heat wave had a grim impact
on Texas, playing a role in the deaths of roughly 150 people. Many of
them were found in their homes or apartments, but a few were discovered
somewhere else — in their prison cells.

Ten inmates of the state prison system died of heat-related causes
last summer in a 26-day period in July and August, a death toll that has
alarmed prisoner rights advocates who believe the lack of air
conditioning in most state prisons puts inmates' lives at risk.

The 10 inmates were housed in areas that lacked air conditioning, and
several had collapsed or lost consciousness while they were in their
cells. All of them were found to have died of hyperthermia, a condition
that occurs when body temperature rises above 105 degrees, according to
autopsy reports and the state's prison agency.

Suspect sought in bar shooting on North Side
By Michelle Cassady - Express-News

Police on Saturday were still looking for the shooter of a man
outside a North Side bar overnight. The victim was hospitalized with
several gunshot wounds.

Officer Matt Porter,
spokesman for the Police Department, said about 2 a.m. officers went to
the XX Bar, where witnesses told them a fight that started between two
men in the bar had spilled into the parking lot and ended in gunfire.

NEW BRAUNFELS — Many months
after she crashed her car into a motorcyclist and killed him, a Canyon
Lake woman has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve five years in
jail.
Diana Lynne Hamby, 49, admitted
she was driving drunk when she killed Anthony Cortez, 57, in a crash
Dec. 4, 2010, in the 9900 block of Farm-to-Market Road 2673, according
to court documents filed in her second-degree felony case.

From the article it sounds like some investigation work is warranted, if for nothing else but to sure that this was 'righteous' shooting by the officer.

If not then other steps will need to be taken.

Questions swirl after officer kills gunman

By Vianna Davila, Vincent T. Davis and Michelle Casady - Express-News

A San Antonio undercover police officer, responding to a personal
request for help from a female friend, shot and killed the woman's
ex-boyfriend who had fired on them early Friday, wounding her,
police said.

The officer, Michael Garza, 33, a 10-year veteran who has been involved in several on-duty shootings, was unhurt. An investigation is pending.

The suspect, Alfredo Hector Aragon,
35, died just after 3 a.m. in front of his Northwest Side home after
Garza pursued him in an unmarked police truck with Aragon's
ex-girlfriend, Abigail Jean Hernandez, in the passenger seat.

I believe I predicted prison time yesterday because I suspected a compromised verdict on the lesser included offense of manslaughter.

Nine years isn't that long in the scheme of her life and Mr. Wolford is dead.

Teen mom gets 9 years for killing boyfriend

By Lindsay Kastner - Express-News

Jurors handed down a sentence of nine years in prison Friday for Tiffany James, the young mother who fatally stabbed her baby's father with a kitchen knife.

James, 20, was found guilty of manslaughter Thursday, avoiding a
murder conviction and the potential for life in prison. She must serve
at least half of her sentence before she is eligible for parole. She
could have received up to 20 years.

By all accounts a promising student and dedicated mother, James had
her life ahead of her on the afternoon of Nov. 20, 2009 when she killed
Antwan Wolford, her live-in boyfriend.

Thief steals SUV while owners are having first babyBy Dalondo Moultrie
New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

NEW BRAUNFELS — Talk about labor pains.
A New Braunfels couple were at
Christus Santa Rosa Hospital-New Braunfels to deliver their first child
Wednesday when someone stole their sport utility vehicle, the husband
said. Inside the SUV was some of the important stuff new parents need to
get along.

In the stolen vehicle was the car seat in which
they planned to strap their new bundle of joy for a safe first ride
home. Also in the car were the mother’s purse, wallet and identifying
information.

The new dad, reached by telephone Friday, said
he’s upset about the thief who ruined what should have been nothing but a
joyous experience, and he asked that the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
not publish the family’s names for fear of identity theft.

The 'Battered Woman syndrome' defense may have helped in reducing this from murder to manslaughter.

We will see what the jury does at sentencing.

My prediction? Prison time instead of probation because the jury may have compromised on the guilty verdict; i.e. we'll agree to manslaughter but no probation.

Young mom, 20, is found guilty of manslaughter

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

Defense attorneys said she was a “hero” who represented battered
women everywhere, while prosecutors said she was a murderer. But after
nearly nine hours of deliberation Thursday, jurors chose neither label
for Tiffany James, instead finding the teen-mom murder defendant guilty of manslaughter.

James, who was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs shortly after
the verdict was read, now faces up to 20 years in prison instead of up
to life for the November 2009 stabbing death of boyfriend Antwan Wolford, 18, at the East Side apartment they shared with her mother.

Jurors will return to 399th state District Court this morning as the
punishment phase of her trial begins. Because of the lesser conviction,
she is eligible to ask the 10-woman, two-man jury for probation.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

In an extraordinary case of jealousy, a Nigerian man - husband of six
- was allegedly raped to death by his five spouses as he was paying too
much attention to his sixth wife in east-central Benue state.

Uroko Onoja, a wealthy businessman, was having sex with his
youngest wife when the other five women attacked him with knives and
sticks, demanding that he have sex with all of them at once.

Onoja, who resisted their attack, was overpowered by the women
who ordered that the sex march begin with the youngest wife and to
continue in that order to the top, Nigeria's Daily reported.

The Bears have finally expunged their long-held shame stemming from the infamous Goldilocks and the Three Bears incident of Medieval times.

They have restored their sense of honor and their porridge is now just right!

Bears trash home in upstate NY's Bearsville

Associated Press -

BEARSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The upstate New York hamlet of Bearsville is living up to its name.

The Times-Herald Record of Middletown reports that a mother bear and her cubs trashed a family's home in Bearsville several times earlier this month.

The
Knowles family arrived at their home on July 13 to find that their
kitchen had been ransacked by bears. They later went out for dinner, and
upon returning they found the house trashed all over again.

Thank you General Abbott for your calm, reasoned and measured response to those who try to stop voter ID so voting and election fraud can continue.

Voter ID does not suppress votes

Greg Abbott for the Express-News

Some partisans use blustery rhetoric against Texas' voter ID law. But
when viewed under a courtroom microscope — under oath — personal
beliefs and opinions give way to the proven facts about voter ID: Voter
fraud is real, voter ID doesn't suppress votes, and the U.S. Supreme
Court has already approved voter ID as a legal, nondiscriminatory
response to voter fraud.

As Texas' attorney general, I've prosecuted voter fraud across the
state, including people who voted using dead people's names; a candidate
who unlawfully registered ineligible foreign nationals to vote; a man
who voted twice on Election Day; an election worker who attempted to
vote for someone else with the same last name; and a person who used
someone else's registration card to vote. In addition to the many cases
my office has prosecuted, other county, state and federal authorities
have handled countless voter fraud investigations.

The recent voter ID trial revealed even more disturbing voter fraud.
Texas has more than 50,000 dead people registered to vote. Even worse,
at least 239 dead people voted in the May election — 213 of them in
person. State Sen. Tommy Williams testified that ballots have been cast for his long-deceased grandfather. A person even attempted to vote for an inmate.

State Reps. Jose Aliseda and Aaron Peña
testified that South Texas is plagued with voter fraud. Rep. Aliseda
also testified that non-citizens voted in Bee County elections. In the
past year, hundreds of people who claimed they were non-citizens had to
be removed from the voter rolls.

Let him keep his beard it shows him for what he really is a radical Muslim Jihadist who murdered 13 individuals and wounded dozens more.

Let the jury see him for what he is and let's get this farce over with and bring him to justice.

Judge: Ft. Hood suspect could be forcibly shaved

Associated Press -

FORT
HOOD, Texas (AP) — An Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people
in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood will be forcibly shaved if he doesn't
remove his beard himself, a judge said Wednesday.

Maj. Nidal Hasan
appeared in court Wednesday sporting a beard as he did during a court
appearance last month. The beard violates Army regulations, but Hasan
said it is an expression of his Muslim faith.

The judge, Col. Gregory Gross, held Hasan in contempt of court for keeping the beard and fined him $1,000. Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug said Gross gave Hasan the choice to shave on his own or be forcibly shaved sometime before his court-martial begins Aug. 20.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

These undated handout images provided by NASA shows the extent of
surface melt over Greenland’s ice sheet on July 8, left, and July 12,
right. Measurements from three satellites showed that on July 8, about
40 percent of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the
surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated
and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July
12. In the image, the areas classified as “probable melt” (light pink)
correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface
melting. The areas classified as “melt” (dark pink) correspond to sites
where two or three satellites detected surface melting. Nearly every
part of the massive Greenland ice sheet suddenly and strangely melted a
bit this month in a freak event that concerned scientists had never
witnessed before. NASA says three different satellites saw what it calls
unprecedented melting from July 8 to July 12. Most of the thick ice
remains, but what was unusual was the widespread area where some melting
occurred. (AP Photo/Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse
Allen, NASA Earth Observatory
Photo: AP
/ AP

The rest of the story: Maybe you should look at a correlation between
this and the massive solar flare from the sun at around the same time?

Just
a suggestion to look at that possibility while you continue on with
President Obama's directive that NASA continue its Muslim outreach
program.

Or it could be from all of the hot air from his campaign .

NASA: Strange and sudden massive melt in Greenland

Associated Press-

WASHINGTON
(AP) — Nearly all of Greenland's massive ice sheet suddenly started
melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists.

Even
Greenland's coldest and highest place, Summit station, showed melting.
Ice core records show that last happened in 1889 and occurs about once
every 150 years.

Three
satellites show what NASA calls unprecedented melting of the ice sheet
that blankets the island, starting on July 8 and lasting four days. Most
of the thick ice remains. While some ice usually melts during the
summer, what was unusual was that the melting happened in a flash and
over a widespread area.

That finally a school board stood up and acted in the interest of their constituents in censoring a school board president and removing her from her position as president of the school board.

Keep up the good work Judson ISD School Board!

Board President censured, deposed

By Lindsay Kastner - Express-News

Two weeks after her indictment on charges of violating the state's
election law was made public, Judson Independent School District trustee
June Adair was censured and stripped of her position as board president.

Trustees voted 4-3 to censure Adair during a special meeting Tuesday night, with Jose Macias, Arnoldo Salinas and Adair casting the dissenting votes. Censure is the most severe reprimand that Texas school board members can give fellow trustees.

Adair was indicted in late June after a lengthy investigation by the
Bexar County District Attorney's office. She could receive a total of
$6,000 in fines and up to 18 months in jail if convicted of the two
charges, a Class A and Class B misdemeanor.

That Judge Tessa Herr let the now-convicted child sex abuser go home after the jury found him guilty and he was facing 25-99 years or life in prison was not only stupid and irresponsible but was also absolutely reprehensible.

It is also incomprehensible that Catherine Babbit didn't ask that he be taken into custody.

Oh well, lock your doors and hide your children.

Rapist gets life - but he's missing

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

It took jurors less than 15 minutes Tuesday to decide that Anselmo Rodriguez
should serve life in prison without parole for the repeated rapes of
two young girls, including a 5-year-old who developed genital warts.

Now authorities just have to find him.

As his sentencing hearing began Tuesday with an empty chair at the
defense table, jurors in 186th state District Court were told Rodriguez,
31, cut off his GPS ankle monitor the night before and hadn't been
seen since.

A jury deliberated about 30 minutes before finding him guilty of
continuous sexual abuse of a child, which carries a minimum sentence of
25 years in prison, at about 4:45 p.m. Monday.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

But I have to admit, with all the crap going on are we really going to extradite him from New Zeland for alleged copyright theft?

Megaupload boss raps Obama in musical protest

MyFoxDC.com -

Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom has launched an online
song attacking US President Barack Obama and urging supporters not to
vote for the US leader, who he accuses of trampling on Internet freedom.

In a song titled "Mr President" released on
YouTube, the self-styled cyber freedom fighter, who allegedly
masterminded a massive online piracy business, compares himself to US
civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King.

Dotcom, free on bail in New Zealand awaiting a US
attempt to extradite him for alleged copyright theft, raps "don't vote
for those who would take us back in time".

I think this was the right punishment given the probation violation and that he didn't drive and self-reported the violation.

Convict who killed brother in DWI wreck back in court

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

A drunken driver who received probation four years ago for killing
his brother in a one-car wreck was back in court Monday after reporting
himself for having consumed alcohol.

With the admitted probation violation, state District Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner could have ordered Joseph Delgado,
46, serve his eight-year sentence in prison. She instead ordered him to
serve four months in a lockdown treatment facility — a resolution
suggested by the probation department and lawyers on both sides.

“Just
thank God ... that you had the sense not to drive,” the judge said,
adding that he would be in prison now if he hadn't. “As much as it may
have been a bad decision, it could have been worse.”

One Texas Department of Public Safety
trooper forced a kiss on a stopped driver. Another used his uniform to
get a girlfriend released from jail. There was the trooper who took an
inspection sticker off his patrol vehicle and stuck it on his
personal car.

These were among a handful of offenses that DPS cited for firing 37
employees since 2010 including patrolmen, investigators and analysts for
everything from drunken driving to drug possession to watching porn
online while on the job, according to recently obtained agency records.

Even a Texas Ranger, one of the most prestigious and highly vetted
law enforcement positions in the state, was forced to turn in his badge
last year after authorities arrested him on allegations of domestic
violence, DPS records show. The charge was brought against ranger Juan E. Lozano, who was stationed in McAllen when he was fired in January 2011. He could not be reached for comment.

NEW BRAUNFELS — Police arrested
two Houston men early Monday for allegedly stealing 18 iPads at Walmart
in New Braunfels, a New Braunfels Police Department spokesman said.
The two men arrested are John
Timothy Cotton Jr., 23, and Jadreon Marquis Robinson, 19, NBPD Capt.
John McDonald said. He said police charged both with theft of property
between $1,500 and $20,000 and took them to Comal County Jail.

RAPID CITY, S.D. -- Rapid City
police arrested a naked woman who officers say may have been high on
synthetic drugs after she called 911 from a rooftop to say she wanted to
fly.

Police spokeswoman Tarah Heupel tells the Rapid City Journal
(http://bit.ly/Pjfvyk ) that dispatch received a call early Wednesday
morning from a woman who had climbed atop a building that houses a
computer business.

The apartment of the suspect in the Colorado theater rampage was decorated with Batman items and crisscrossed with waist-high trip wires attached to more than 30 improvised grenades strewn across the living room floor, a law enforcement official close to the case said Sunday.

Nearby were 10 gallons of gasoline “to enhance the thermal effect.”
The suspect, James Holmes, 24, is accused of opening fire at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie,"The Dark Knight Rises." Twelve people were killed in the attack; 58 were injured.

Investigators who served search warrants Saturday at Holmes'
850-square-foot, third-floor apartment in a rundown section of Aurora
“found a Batman poster on a wall, a Batman mask and other Batman
paraphernalia,” according to the official, who has not been identified
because of the sensitivity of the case.

San Antonio police detained a driver and arrested his passenger after
their vehicle — which was found to have a large amount of meat inside —
crashed into a stop sign southeast of downtown.

Sgt. Greg Brooks said around 3 p.m. Sunday, police tried to pull over a speeding black BMW
on U.S. 281 near Josephine Street. The driver refused to stop, and the
passenger reportedly threw a small baggie of marijuana out of the window
as the men drove away from police, Brooks said.

Officers
followed, and the BMW reached speeds of 120 mph before Brooks terminated
the chase near Interstate 10 and Pine Street. Moments later, police
were told a black BMW crashed and two men inside it ran away, Brooks
said. An officer in an unmarked car nearby spotted the men at East
Drexel and Piedmont avenues and detained them; meanwhile, police
recovered the baggie and found several unmarked packages of meat inside
the car.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

You Didn't Build That

1 In the beginning Govt created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now
the economy was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the
ATMs, and the Spirit of Govt was hovering over the land.

3 And Govt said, “Let there be spending,” and there was spending. 4 Govt saw that the spending was good, and that it separated the light from the darkness. 5 Govt called the spending Investments, and this he did in the first day.6 Then Govt said, “Let there be roads and bridges across the waters, and let dams divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus Govt made the infrastructure and the patronage jobs for eternity under the firmament from the Potomac which was above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And Govt called the firmament Washington. This Govt did on the second day.9 Then Govt said, “Let the regulations and the guidlines
under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the
Bureaus appear”; and it was so. 10 And Govt called the Bureaus demigovts, and the gathering together of them He called AFSCME. And Govt saw that it was good.11 Then Govt said, “Let there be police, and firefighters,
and teachers according to their kind, for they will create more jobs”;
and it was so. 12 And then Govt bade the void bring forth
crime, and arson, and stupidity, that each would yield seed to bring
forth more police, and firefighters, and teachers, and jobs. And Govt
saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.14 On the fourth day Govt said, “Let Us make the economy
in Our image, according to Our likeness; let it have dominion over the
cars of the road, over the appliances of the supercenters, and over the
pet groomers of the strip malls, over all the clickthroughs of Amazon
and over every creepy thing of the Dollar Stores.” 15 So Govt created the economy in His own image; services and wholesale and retail He created them. 16 Then
Govt blessed them, and Govt said to them, “Be fruitful and use the
multiplier effect; fill the land with jobs; thou have dominion over thy
realm, within limits, as long and thou remember to get thy permits and
tithe thy taxes, for they are good. Hope to see you at the fundraiser.”17And on the
fifth day Govt made an official Govt holiday, and headed off for a 3-day
golf weekend at Camp David. But first Govt said to the economy, "you
are free to eat from any tree in the garden, except the tree of
Knowledge. There is a serpent in that thing, and thy health care does
not cover it."18 So when Govt was on vay-cay the economy set about the
garden, plowing its fields and generating revenue for the glory of Govt.
They obeyed the regulations and were not ashamed.19 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the
balanced, publicly-funded birds the Lord Govt had made to sing news to
the economy. The serpent was on the AM band. He said to the retail
sector, “Did Govt really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the
garden’? ”20 "Only yours, serpent," said the retail sector.21 “Don't be a wuss,” the serpent said to the retail sector. 22 “For Govt knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will wise to Govt's scam.”23 When she saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eye,
and also desirable for gaining wisdom, and also free to download, she
took some and ate it. She emailed a copy to her wholesaler, and he ate
it; and then the wholesaler to the manufacturer, and he to the
servicer. 24 Then the eyes of all of them were opened, and
they realized they were being taxed naked; so they outsourced fig leaves
to make coverings for themselves.25 Then the economy heard the sound of the Lord Govt
returning from vay-cay with the demigovts Osha and Tarp and Irs. It was
the cool of the day, and they were hiding their profits from
the Lord Govt among the trees of the garden. 26 But the Lord Govt called to the manufacturer, “Where are you?”26 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid, so I sought a tax shelter.”27 And Govt said, “Who told you that your profits were yours? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? ”28 The man said, “The retailer made me —she has a thing for serpents.”29 Then the Lord Govt said to the retailer, “What is this you have done?”30 And she said to the Lord Govt, “Don't take that tone with me, fat boy. And why should I give you my profits?”31 The Lord Govt was in wrath, and said, “For I am the Lord Govt, creator of Eden! 32 I
gave unto you the roads and bridges, and schools and cops, brought unto
you of gentle showers of Tarp and Stimulus and rivers of Subsidy, I am
the purifier of the waters, cleanser of the air, without which you and
your profits would not exist. Thus all that thou have created is created
by Us. Thus ye shall render unto Govt what is Govt's, and this is the
Word of your Lord.”33 At these words, Solydra and Gm and Seiu and all the
Cronyans and Laborites dropped to their knees in trembling fear and
supplicated themselves before the Lord, presenting Him golden gifts of
contributions.34 Then the retailer said to Govt, “And who created you?”35 In righteous anger did the Lord Govt again rise up and
said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Tri-Delts and the Dekes, I am
and have always been! I am the great cosmic turtle on which you and the
entire economy rest.”36 "And on whom do you rest, turtle?" said the retailer in blasheme.37 "Do not mock me with your knowledge trickery, harlot!" said the Lord Govt. "I am turtles all the way down."38 So the Lord Govt said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.39 And I will keep you from tenure and grants and the airwaves, and condemn you to the bowels of internet."

40 Then the Lord Govt turned the retailer and the manufacturer and the wholesaler and all the servicers, and said,

“I will make your taxes and regulations very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to profit. You shall be afflicted with plagues of audits, the coming of Osha, and the trials of Irs.By the sweat of thy brow you will earn thy living until you return it to Me.You will suffer the droughts of subsidy and stimulus, and will thirst forever. You're welcome."

41 And so the Lord Govt banished the economy from
paradise, and bade them go outsource to the Far East of Eden. And as the
chastened economy slouched out of of Babylon He said unto them,40 "How do you like them apples?"

But to turn a blind eye to the sexual abuse of many young boys in order to protect your football program is, IMHO, disgraceful.

Joe Paterno statue taken down

By Don Van Natta, Jr. - ESPN .com

The Joe Paterno statue was removed Sunday morning from its pedestal
outside Beaver Stadium, and it will be stored in an unnamed "secure
location," Penn State president Rodney Erickson announced. Erickson also
said the Paterno name will remain on the university's library.

Shortly before dawn in State College, Pa., a work crew installed
chain-link fences to barricade access to Porter Road outside Beaver
Stadium and covered the fence with a blue tarp.

The work crew
then removed the 7-foot, 900-pound bronze statue by forklift and placed
it into the lower level of the stadium. Erickson released his highly
sensitive decision to the public at 7 a.m. ET Sunday.

NEW
TRIPOLI, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman allegedly changed her
children's grades after logging into a school computer system using
passwords obtained when she worked for the district.

Investigators
say Catherine Venusto used the Northwestern Lehigh School District
superintendent's password to change the grades. She was arraigned
Wednesday on a half-dozen felony counts and released on bail.

Officials
say Venusto changed a failing grade to a medical exception for he
daughter in 2010, when she was still a district secretary. The New
Tripoli woman is also accused of bumping one of her son's grades from 98
to 99 percent in February.

Lucky he was able to get "only" 20 years on his plea when his co-defendant had gotten 57 years from a jury.

Deadly assault with bat nets 20 years, despite false confession claim

By Craig Kapitan - Express-news

A homeless San Antonio man who has spent the past five years in jail
awaiting trial in the baseball bat bludgeoning death of a West Side
business owner was sentence Friday to 20 years in prison, despite a
last-minute claim that he gave a false confession.

The prison term was the maximum state District Judge Ron Rangel could assess for Matthew Scott Gravlin, 23, whose murder charge was reduced to aggravated assault last month by prosecutors in exchange for his no-contest plea.

Accomplice Christopher Rosales was convicted of murder by a jury in 2009 and ordered to serve 57 years.

A Windcrest man has pleaded guilty for his role in a
marijuana-trafficking ring and gave up his interest in two homes that
are among the hamlet's largest and most expensive.

James Mason Blackmon,
52, entered the guilty plea Thursday in Austin to conspiracy to possess
with intent to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to launder money,
his lawyer, Chris Gober, confirmed Friday.

Under a plea deal, he agreed to be sentenced later to 100 months in federal prison.

Rest in Peace Jessica Ghawi and best wishes for a speedy recovery to Brent Lowak, our thoughts and prayers are with you, the other victims and your families and loved ones.

S.A. woman killed in rampage

By Ana Ley - Express-News

Jessica Ghawi had avoided mayhem at a Toronto mall only to be one of a
dozen movie-goers in a Denver suburb to be killed Friday as a gunman
terrorized the opening of the latest Batman movie. In a chilling blog
post, the former San Antonian wrote that she credited a “feeling” for
saving her life during the mall shooting.

“An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of
harm’s way,” Ghawi wrote just three days after the June 2 shooting at
the Eaton Centre Mall food court that left two people dead.

“It’s hard
for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in
the middle of a deadly shooting,”

Her receipt from the food court was stamped 6:20 p.m. The first shots were heard at 6:23.

Friday, July 20, 2012

A lone gunman dressed in riot gear burst into a movie theater in Aurora,
Colo., at a midnight showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises"
and methodically began shooting patrons, killing at least 12 people and
injuring at least 50.

The suspect, James Holmes, 24, of Aurora, was caught by police in the
parking lot of the Century 16 Movie Theaters, nine miles outside Denver,
after police began receiving dozens of 911 calls at 12:39 a.m. MT.
Police said the man appeared to have acted alone.

Witnesses in the movie theater said Holmes crashed into the auditorium
through an emergency exit about 30 minutes into the film, set off a
smoke bomb, and began shooting. Holmes stalked the aisles of the
theater, shooting people at random, as panicked movie-watchers in the
packed auditorium tried to escape, witnesses said.

HUNTSVILLE,
Texas (AP) — A Texas man convicted of carjacking and fatally shooting a
stockbroker was put to death Wednesday, becoming the first prisoner in
the nation's most active capital punishment state to be executed under a
procedure using one lethal drug instead of three.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice
officials announced last week they were modifying the three-drug
injection method used since 1982 because the state's supply of one of
the drugs — the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide — has expired. Yokamon Hearn,
33, was executed using a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital,
which had been part of the three-drug mixture since last year.

Ohio,
Arizona, Idaho and Washington have already adopted a single-drug
procedure, and this week Georgia said it would do so, too.

NEW BRAUNFELS — The defense got
its turn Wednesday morning and tried to save Michael D. Bonnette from
conviction in his Comal County jury trial for allegedly molesting a
girl, then about 8 years old, several years ago in New Braunfels.
It did no good. The jury found
Bonnette 31, of Texas City, guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a
child younger than 14 years old. Sammy McCrary, Comal County chief
felony prosecutor, said in his opening statement Tuesday that Bonnette
committed the crime on or about April 30, 2006.

Bonnette’s attorney, Will Holgate of Austin,
called his client’s friends and family to the stand Wednesday.
Bonnette’s half-brother and half-sister testified that their brother is a
registered sex offender, but that he had been wrongly adjudicated as a
teen.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

CHARLOTTE (CBS Charlotte) — Get off that computer. A new study finds that constantly being online can affect your mental health.

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg recently
studied more than 4,100 Swedish men and women between the ages of 20
and 24 for a year and found that a majority of them who constantly use a
computer and mobile phones can develop stress, sleeping disorders and
depression.

Sara Thomee, lead author of the study, said there was a “central link” between computers and mental disorders.

Two life sentences and 50 years for human trafficking and 40 years for aggravated kidnapping to boot.

Spider has left the house!

'Spider' handed life term, no parole

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

Alleged East Side crack den proprietor Bobby “Spider” Moreno
followed his brother to prison Tuesday as a jury ordered him to serve
life without parole for his part in the abduction, rape and prostitution
of a 13-year-old customer five years ago.

How many more babies have to die because of their parent's sheer stupidity?

Texas baby left in hot car dies

By Robert Kolarik - Express-News

A 2-month-old whose mother left him in a hot car in Brazoria County has died, KHOU-TV is reporting.

The family was celebrating another child’s baptism on Sunday, and the
mother left twice to run errands, taking the baby with her, the Houston
station says. The second time she returned, she left the little boy
inside the car in the 90-degree-plus heat.

The baby died less than 24 hours later, KHOU says.

“Right now, we’re basically trying to determine whether or not the
mother was negligent by leaving her child in the car,” Brian Harper, an
investigator for the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office, told the station.

The son of an accused money launderer on the Zetas cartel hit list
was arrested Tuesday following a standoff with San Antonio police, after
allegedly breaking into a Stone Oak home to assault his
father's girlfriend.

The brazen incident in one of the city's
affluent neighborhoods indicates a spillover of drug-cartel violence in
Mexico making its way to San Antonio, a destination that authorities say
has become a favorite of money launderers for the cartels.

Police said Antonio Peña
Jr., 27, and two other men with him forced their way into a home in the
gated Champions Ridge subdivision because they believed the woman was
responsible for Peña's father, Antonio Peña Arguelles, 56, landing in jail.

A 7-year-old Brooklyn girl is miraculously alive and well today after
plummeting three stories — thanks to a heroic neighbor who raced into
action and broke her fall.

Cops said little Keyla McCree pushed
out one of the accordion pieces that was holding a brand- new air
conditioner in a bedroom window of her Coney Island apartment and
squeezed through the tiny opening before she fell off.

“She’s fine,” said the autistic girl’s mom, Shaleema McCree.

“Not a scratch on her. The man caught her, thank God.

“It’s a miracle.”

Dramatic
cellphone video of Steven St. Bernard’s dramatic rescue shows a
shoe-string catch that would make the Giants’ Victor Cruz proud.

BTW I believe "Backwards" would be a more appropriate campaign slogan for your campaign.

Obama visiting donors in S.A. today

By John W. Gonzales - Express-News

It might be more about making money than making news, but President Barack Obama
returns to San Antonio today for the first time in more than four
years, with two scheduled campaign stops open only to contributors.

Obama is slated to address South Texas campaign donors at the
Convention Center around 1 p.m. and join a small gathering of big-dollar
backers at the Dominion home of attorney Mikal Watts.

Obama supporters estimate a turnout of about 1,000 at the Convention
Center event and predict a local record for Democratic presidential
campaign fundraising. Last month, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney set a local GOP record by hauling in $3.5 million for a luncheon address.

A driver was killed early today during a high-speed police chase on Interstate 10, KSAT-TV reported on its 5 a.m. newscast.

Officers were running a radar unit from the I-10 access road at West
Avenue when a Mustang came roaring past eastbound on the interstate at
more than 100 mph, the station said.

Two patrol cars gave pursuit, and just as they turned on their
flashing lights, the driver in the Mustang attempted to make a quick
exit at Frio Street, KSAT said. The first patrol car was too close to
the exit to make the turn, and by the the time the second squad car
arrived at the exit, the Mustang had slammed into a retaining wall.